Behavioral learning, experts say, is the missing link to help
transform people’s mind-sets and behaviors when an organization faces major
organizational change.

By Tracy Butchee and Lara Paukovits

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Like
most organizations these days, your company is probably facing a big change of
some sort, or, perhaps a major change is right around the corner. Now, let’s
imagine for a moment, a fellow employee at your company: we’ll call her Maria.
And for illustrative purposes, let’s say your organization follows a pretty
typical approach to managing and communicating the change.

Here’s
how things might play out:

Maria
receives an initial e-mail from leadership announcing an upcoming
organizational change -- it’s a biggie -- impacting organizational structure,
work processes, technology and
overall culture. She reads the rationale and the benefits to the company. She
wonders what it will mean for her, which makes her a bit anxious. She talks
about the change with her peers, who don’t have any more information or
insights than she does. Over time, she hears leaders and HR reinforce the
initial messages and encourage all employees to get on board.

Assuming
Maria trusts her leaders, she may feel somewhat relieved to know they’re behind
the change and its value. She feels a little better, but still wonders what it
will mean for her personally and her work. Questions such as these keep running
through her head:

·Will I still have a
job?

·How will my job
change?

·Will I be able to be
successful?

·Do I still want to
work for this company?

Maria
continues to receive updates on the change through e-mails, town hall meetings
and other forums. Although she realizes the changes are out of her control, her
anxiety remains. Eventually, she receives word her job is safe (whew),
but her role will be quite different (oh, boy). She gets invited to a
training course to help her learn new work processes and systems. This helps,
giving her some comfort level about the new workflow and technology. But, Maria
knows she’ll be working with an entirely new team, focused on new priorities
and goals, with an emphasis on new behavioral competencies.

And
more questions begin to swirl in her head:

What
will the team dynamics be like?

Will
we work well together?

Will
I be able to learn and meet the new competency expectations?

Day 1
comes, and the switch is flipped.

Envision
the Result

How
comfortable do you think Maria felt on Day 1? How long do you think it took for
the team to gel? Do you think the team was fully prepared to deliver on the new
priorities and goals? Do you think the new competency expectations were reached
within the first month? Year? Ever?

While
Maria’s story is simply illustrative, it’s also relatively common. The company
used several different levers to help manage the change, including
communication, leadership and training. And they seemed to manage the change
fairly well. However, they missed a critical aspect of effectively managing
change that could ultimately derail the whole initiative, diminish the ROI, or
significantly delay other anticipated benefits.

The
missing link? Behavioral learning.

Consider
the Data

Towers
Watson conducted the 2011-2012 Change and Communication ROI Study to
clarify the meaning of effective change management, and assess its influence on
an organization’s overall success and financial performance. Participants
included more than 600 organizations across industries and regions. Most
organizations had experienced significant change over the prior two years, and
the typical organization had gone through common organizational changes (e.g.,
reorganization, implementation of a new performance management system). Most
respondents were responsible for employee communications.

Through
this research, we identified six activities that truly influence overall change
management success, regardless of the type of change. The first is learning.

By
learning, we don’t mean dropping a training manual of new standard operating
procedures on an employee’s desk or holding a one-hour webcast to introduce a
new work process. We mean providing the knowledge and skills necessary to
adapt to change. And effective learning has clear ties to the other five
activities for success -- leading (providing a clear vision of the new
expectations), measuring (setting clear, measurable goals up front),
communicating (guiding and motivating employees), involving (creating a sense
among employees and leaders that they are all “in it together”), and sustaining
(reinforcing behavior change over time).

Our
study showed a significant gap in how organizations with high change
effectiveness approach learning versus those with low change effectiveness.The
figure below shows that creating accountability for new skills and behavior and
encouraging employee feedback are keys to making change stick. An early focus
on learning can set the stage for these kinds of high change effectiveness
outcomes.

Source:
Towers Watson 2011-2012 Change and Communication ROI Study

In
Maria’s example above, the company rightly included technical training as part
of their change management approach -- an important component of skill-building
and employee readiness. However, they failed to consider using behavioral
learning as a lever of change. This oversight can have a powerful impact on how
employees feel and act when initially taking on a new role, working with a
different team and/or adapting to new competency expectations.

In our
change-management experience, clients rarely overlook technical training.
Organizations recognize the need to provide it to get work done following a
change. But they often assume that employees will figure out the softer,
cultural aspects of change on their own and so, overlook one of the most
impactful levers of change -- behavioral learning -- which helps
employees:

Further
understand the impact of change on themselves and others;

Learn
more about the cultural, interpersonal aspects of the change;

Better
prepare by asking questions, working through scenarios and playing off
peers’ reactions; and

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And as
a result, it helps the organization reach its change objectives more quickly,
saving time and money in the process.

While
some may consider this soft-skill learning too soft, we believe behavioral
learning is where the rubber meets the road in changing people’s mind-sets and
behaviors.

Learn
From Others

Towers
Watson recently worked with the leadership and HR department of a major oil
refinery undergoing a significant restructuring. The new organizational model
involved new work processes and new teams. These teams brought together two
entirely different parts of the business: operators who were typically
college-educated, full-time employees and maintenance workers who were
primarily less-educated workers from a union contractor.

In the
past, a complex and sensitive dynamic akin to a “master-servant” relationship
had existed between these two employee groups. But to work effectively in the
new organizational model, they needed to partner as equals. One of the critical
elements of the organization’s comprehensive change management strategy was
behavioral learning events.

In
initial learning events developed by Towers Watson and HR, leaders of the two
groups worked on becoming one successful, integrated leadership team and
building skills in decision making and conflict management. They were united
when the combined operator/maintenance employees joined them, and
co-facilitated with Towers Watson on team-building sessions to collaboratively
discuss new management processes and determine work rules.

The
sessions started slowly -- as many employees were uncomfortable about bringing
sensitive topics to the table -- but eventually, the structured exercises and
discussions led to an atmosphere of openness and respectful dialogue.

Employees
left the sessions with more understanding and empathy for the other group’s
perspectives. They shared that they had gotten to know each other better
personally and felt more prepared now that they understood what Day 1 under the
new operational model would be like. In the end, the new processes got off the
ground much more quickly and with fewer problems than anticipated. Many
attributed the program’s success to their employees’ ability to work through
most of the interpersonal dynamics and potential challenges ahead of time.

Behavioral
learning offers employees the opportunity not only to get comfortable in their
own (new) shoes, but also to walk in the shoes of their colleagues.

Make
the Case

Some
organizations might shy away from adding the expense of behavioral learning
programs to the already high cost of making significant change. But there is a
powerful role for HR to play in showing leadership the investment is well worth
it, as the outcomes -- from both financial and people perspectives -- can far
outweigh the costs.

For
instance, Towers Watson research shows that companies that are highly effective
at both communication and change management are 2.5 times as likely to
outperform their peers as companies that are not highly effective in either
area. It also shows that the benefits of investing in behavioral learning (and
change management overall) extend beyond the current change initiatives, and
they can help with future ones, too.

HR
executives who can prove the value of high-touch, interpersonal learning
interventions can help their companies move the needle more significantly and
more quickly on the success measures of their current change -- as well as set
themselves up for future change management success. Engaging in open, honest
conversations and experiences with employees can offer invaluable insights into
your workforce’s attitudes, values and concerns. And those insights can help
you optimally manage the changes underway today, as well as inform your change strategy
for tomorrow.

Tracy
Butchee is a senior consultant in Towers Watson’s talent management practice
based in Austin, Texas, with a specialization in change management. Lara
Paukovits is a Los Angeles-based consultant in Towers Watson’s communication and
change management practice.